Paul finds the positives and guides Balto to big decider

IMAGINE taking on a job as manager of your local Senior football team and your first game is a league relegation final and on the way to that game you almost lose control of your car coming across the top of a hill in the middle of a winter storm and then for your new team to suffer relegation at the end of that harardous journey. You’d probably wonder if the GAA gods had it in for you.

But not Paul Garrigan. He admits the relegation defeat to Bray Emmets in Roundwood last January was a low point but he is an amazing character in that he finds positives where mere mortals can only see negatives.

“Probably was (a low point). But there were loads of positives to be taken from that game,” said Garrigan when Wicklow People Sport meet him and his captain Jason Kennedy.

“We put in a good performance. We were unprepared. We were nearly killed on the way over. My car slipped. I met the lads on the top of the gap that night and they were saying we weren’t going any further and I said we’re getting this match out of the way and we went. And my car slid.

“Paddy Dowling (selector) jumped out of the car going down so I could have had a short career. But we played the match; we lost by two or three points but there were loads of positives. Like, I said to the lads in the dressing room after the match, “I would have rather been in the Baltinglass dressing room than the Bray dressing room tonight”. I hadn’t done anything with them so I expected a big improvement on them from that night,” he added.

Jason Kennedy said that after that game Paul was so enthused that he spoke for so long on that freezing cold night that the hot water for showers was gone by the time he was finished.

“As players, I was trying to drill it into the lads, we didn’t want to go down, without any shadow of a doubt,” he said. “But one thing I remember from that night, in the first half we were quite poor but in the second half we got back on track. It was one of the worst nights ever and we came back in and Paul was so enthused by the second half, he was talking that long that the showers were cold. I suppose it kind of took off from there. We only had five minutes to warm up. It was the kind of game that was in balance, we didn’t know if it was going to go ahead or not,” he added.

“We couldn’t go back through the Gap, we had to go up through Tallaght and home that way. That was the start for us,” said Paul Garrigan.

Prior to the league relegation, Baltinglass had suffered a bad defeat to Rathnew in the championship. Without wanting to dwell on negatives, we were interested in getting Jason’s take on that game.

“I think we were well prepared last year but the frustrating side of it from the players’ perspective was that we never looked like winning that game and the funny thing about that game in a game where you only lose by four points and you never look like winning it, it wasn’t a great performance.

“We put a lot into it but Rathnew dominated that game from start to finish and the winner was never in doubt. For us that was really disappointing. For me anyway, I’ve played since 2011, that was the lowest point for me, that defeat to Rathnew. We never looked like winning even though we only lost by four points”.

How much of a motivational factor has that defeat been this year if any?

“You draw motivation from all sorts of different sources, we’ve had some bad defeats since I’ve been playing but our goal since the start of the year was to have Baltinglass back in a county final and now we’re there we’re hoping to do ourselves justice.

“You could use it (the Rathnew defeat) as motivation, there was a lot of criticism, and you do want to go out and show what you’re made of. I think there was a lot of young players being brought through last year and I think they’re up to the pace of championship football now and possibly that’s why we’ve been a little more successful this year,” he said.

On the subject of young players we put it to Paul Garrigan that it was those young players who really shone against Bray Emmets in the semi-final, the likes of Mark Jackson in goals, the Burkes in the half-back line and so on. The Baltinglass gaffer says that he has been really impressed by their honesty and enthusiasm.

“Yeah, very honest young lads. You look at Mark Jackson, 18 years old in goal, the two Burkes are 19, Dan Kelly is 19, Chris Heaslip is 19. Some of them were involved in the panel, some of them weren’t, they’ve really bought into it, they’ve really given an honest effort.

“Them lads wouldn’t have played Minor ‘A’ for Baltinglass, they would have played Minor ‘B’, so it’s a massive step up from Minor to Senior. And then you have the likes of Stephen Quinn, he played Junior ‘B’ last year.

“They’ve really impressed me with their enthusiasm and they’ve really bought into it which is all you can ask for.

“I think that when I came here first I just wanted lads that really wanted to play for Baltinglass and wherever that brought us it brought us. It’s brought us to a county final, that’s brilliant, but if that brought us to the quarter-finals or the semi-finals or wherever, that’s where it brought us.

“But I can safely say that all them lads out there on that field want to play for Baltinglass which I don’t personally, and I was looking in from the outside over the last few years, but I don’t think that was the case for the last couple of years in the club, I don’t think everyone really wanted to play. Yeah, the lads might say, “Yeah, I want to play for Baltinglass”, but they might not have really given everything to play for the club.

Paul Garrigan is no stranger to GAA people in Wicklow. He is currently woking as a GDA in the county and is managerial experience includes guiding the Baltinglass ladies to a Senior county crown in the recent past. Jason Kennedy says that his use of the ball in all aspects of training has been a major factor in the team’s improvement this year.

“Everyone’s aware of Paul, that’s his career. He’s a GDA so training has been very good this year and I think it’s the use of the ball in all aspects of training. In the past you were doing a lot of monotonous runs around the field to get the stamina up and while you’re doing that training you’re improving your physical fitness but you’re not improving your mental fitness. This year when we were trying to get the fitness levels up we were doing high intensity stuff but we were doing it with the ball so we were getting mentally fit and physically fit at the same time.

“Paul is a very straight shooter. He doesn’t beat around the bush. He’s very honest. And if you’re not performing or if you’re not showing the commitment that we want he tells you straight up. I think lads respond to that. I think anyone throughout the year if they weren’t training or whatever he made them accountable for not showing the commitment.

“I think he loves football and I think all the players like that about him and he gets great satisfaction fromseeing a player improve. He referenced Stephen Quinn and there is a player who has improved dramatically this year and it’s not down solely to the guys (management) this year, a lot of it is down to Stephen himself, but I think Paul gets some good satisfaction from that.

When you talk to Jason Kennedy you can’t help but be impressed by the 26-year-old. He is refreshingly honest. There is a real sense about him that this is savagely important to him. He comes across as a real leader and Paul Garrigan says that it was those leadership qualities and Kennedy’s application and commitment that made him an easy choice as captain.

“Probably over the last couple of years, again watching from the outside, but Jason’s honesty, his leadership on the football field, he’s very well respected by the players and by us as a management team. He’s really led the team over the last couple of years, even though he wasn’t captain; he was one of the real leaders on the field.

He’s got a good response from the players. All the lads respect him,” said Garrigan.

Jason sees his age as key to him being chosen as captain and he says that the role of captain can be an important one due to the influence a captain can have on the team.

“I’m 26, so I’m kind of in the middle so there’s guys a bit younger than me. I remember when I was 16 doing the camps here in the club and there’s lads out there that I coached back then. And then in 2002 at the county final I had my hair dyed and I was only 12 and there were lads out there who were playing. There’s a massive range of ages in this team and I suppose I’m in the middle and I can bring all the lads together. I think, it’s not just me, we all do that.

“I think a captain can have an influence on your team and the way it is with me is I would try to lead by example. My approach to training, my approach to games, my approach to everything outside of the field, whether it be gym work, nutrition how to look after your body, I try to set an example that way. I think all the lads have rowed in behind that.

“Paul talks about respect. I had to work very hard to get that respect. I think a lot of people know that. But it’s a very proud moment for me and my family,” he added.

So to Sunday, Aughrim, county final, Pat’s.

“They’ve been there or thereabout the last couple of years. 2012 they won the final, beaten in 2014 and 2015, probably were favourites last year for the final and didn’t perform up to where they could,” said Paul Garrigan. “Talent all over the football field from the full-back line out, Padraig Higgins, Emmet Cullen, Padge McWalter, Dean Healy, Crowe, Ffrench, Tommy Kelly, Wolfe, like they’ve natural talent all over the field.

“Last year I was the first person to meet Padge McWalter after the county final because I was doing the Go Games and I’ve never seen a more disappointed man in my life, I’ve seen a lot of disappointment in my life, so the hunger that will be there, the hunger from 2014 and 2015, the natural talent all over the field, the amount of county players they have so we know that this is going to be a huge task for us.

“They’ve coasted through most of their games. They haven’t really been tested, I don’t think they’ve conceded a goal, I think they’re a really balanced side, I think their management team is excellent, Robert Hollinsgworth, Alan Smullen, Des Earls and Gary Jamesson, we’d really respect them. We’ve a huge task ahead of us. We’re there and that’s the main thing,” he added.

Jason Kennedy says that being apart of the county final day is a massive thing for the club and that it’s the work of all the volunteers in the club that will hopefully inspire them to perform to the best of their ability.

“County final is a massive day, it’s massive. Sunday will be massive for the club and for the kids. I was too young to remember the real successful years in Baltinglass, I would have been at the one they won in 2007 but that’s kind of it. It’s great to see the buzz around the club with the kids and all that and they’ll be there and they’ll remember the day. When you’re up here a lot you see the effort and the volunteers and the really good people up here and we’ll have that in the back of our minds and we’ll try to put on a good show for them,” he said.

“We haven’t won a championship since 2007, one championship in 20 years in Baltinglass,” said Paul Garrigan. “People would look at the 1990s in Baltinglass but that’s gone, it’s gone.

“You go back to that 2007 team and I was looking at a picture today of Billy Cullen and Anthony Nolan lifting the cup and you have the Quinns and the Burkes in the background. It has an influence. Losing a final has not as much of an influence but you win a final and you’re in the schools and it has a kind of domino effect.

Jason Kennedy says that watching your team win a championship affects you at a very important level as a child.

“You’re watching them (the players winning a championship) and you’re saying, “I want to be like them”, and the next time you’re training it’s always in the back of your mind and you work harder and work harder and try to improve,” he said.

We leave Paul Garrigan and Jason Kennedy to return to their early training session in Baltinglass last Sunday morning.

We leave one of the most talented young managers in the county and a team captain who if he plays on Sunday with the sincerity and integrity and intelligence with which he spoke to us then you can expect something truly memorable from Jason Kennedy, and from Baltinglass.